Battery
by Kay Hau
Summary: Perhaps Wu should have explained to Lloyd that, no, "Green" did not refer to his ability to bring people together. But empathy, energy, what's the difference? Well, one can destroy Ninjago. Movie-verse, post-movie. Beta credits to Sunny Lighter! Complete!
1. Chapter 1

Standing before Meowthra, listening to the cruel comments of the city's citizens, Lloyd figured out that Green was the color of life, connection, the force that pulls people and creatures and elements together. He realized it made him a natural leader, someone who could empathize with and encourage others to achieve their very best.

So close. But no.

Lloyd hadn't understood that, in the end, Green was the most important piece to the actual ultimate ultimate weapon. Combining all the elements and allowing them to be wielded as one. But Wu was happy to let his students think it was part of his needlessly complicated metaphor.

He really needed to collect those pieces Garmadon had tossed all over the place, though. Before, you know, something happened to the second most powerful weapon in existence.

Just as well, though! Since it turned out Meowthra really just needed some gentle words and a kind touch. That could have been messy!

Maybe empathy was a special part of Lloyd, but Green was so much more. Life, Energy, Power. A combination of all the elements, the potential to literally move mountains. True ultimate power, not just a metaphor, was within Lloyd's reach, should they ever have need of such a thing.

Wu said nothing, hoping there would never be a reason for Lloyd to have to know this. Hoping his nephew could live a simple life, free from the burdens of the First Spinjitzu Master. A simple life with good friends and a loving family.

He really should have spoken up. It was kind of arrogant to assume he was the only being in the world to have heard of the power of Green.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

Lloyd awoke screaming in excruciating pain. Whether it lasted hours or minutes, he didn't know, and when it finally ended all he could do was stare blankly up at the ceiling.

It took a while for him to process anything, between the shivering aftershocks and the tears. He was flat on his back, a smooth, hard surface below him, unbound.

Lloyd closed his blurry eyes, letting his other senses do their job as he gasped for air. There was a strange buzzing in the air, which tasted and smelled sort of... flat. Recycled? He wasn't outdoors or underground or in a prison or anywhere familiar. The smooth, flat surface below him wasn't metal or concrete or dirt.

He rubbed his eyes with his hands to clear them, then chanced looking around again.

Oh. That was weird. It looked like...

He rubbed his eyes some more and tried to sit up. His weakened body fought him, so instead he rolled to his stomach then pushed himself to his knees. From there he was able to sit back on his calves and reach out to the glass wall.

Yes, that was some sort of glass. Curving around and below him, like a giant glass jar, complete with some sort of metal lid far above him.

On the other side of that glass, a vaguely familiar redhead girl about his age was staring back at him with fear in her eyes. He really should recognize her. He was sure he knew her, but with his mind and body aching and all this weird stuff going on...

"Who...?" gasped Lloyd, but his throat seized and he could only cough for the next few seconds.

The girl set her hand against the glass and mouthed "I'm sorry." Was the glass soundproof?

Lloyd looked beyond the girl into what was unmistakably some sort of laboratory. Which he appeared to be the prize specimen of. Joy.

On the far end of the room were two men. One looked amazingly like the founder of the noodle shop he and his friends liked to hang out at. In some sort of evil samurai costume. The other looked like, well, a vampire mad scientist. It looked like the noodle shop guy was in charge.

As Lloyd wearily watched, trying to make some sense of what he was seeing, the noodle shop guy looked up and caught his eyes. He grinned with a malevolence that could match Garmadon's at his worst. Maybe worse, since his father's evil grins had always been tinted with his strange megalomanic humor.

The man approached the glass, his ridiculous cape flapping behind him, apparently not bothered by the weight of it or his enormous and equally ridiculous skull-themed hat. Who wants people to think they're wearing an animal skull on top of their heads? Even Lord Garmadon had better taste.

"Hello, little Green Ninja."

Not soundproof then.

"Or should I call you my little battery? Don't worry, pet, we'll take good care of you. Well, of your powers anyway. I'm Chen, by the way."

Lloyd glared, even as his mind raced. Chen, so it really was the noodle shop guy. So the girl must be Kai's crush, Skylor. And powers? Didn't his powers have to do with life and connection? They weren't something physical, so what was going on?

"Not going to say hi to your new owner? How rude, pet. I was once good friends with your father, after all. Before he BETRAYED ME!"

Yeah, not a surprise. His dad betrayed a lot of people. Pretty much everyone he'd ever met. That was in the past though.

Lloyd just continued glaring.

"How boring. At least your Green Power is interesting. Fascinating, really. If Clouse is correct, we can use your power to basically control all of Ninjago."

What nonsense was he...? Lloyd's eyes followed Chen as he gestured to a huge coil of some sort, as large as the glass prison Lloyd was trapped in, visibly glowing and crackling with green energy of some sort.

Okay. Well. Maybe not nonsense? Unless this is some really, really overcomplicated setup.

"Daughter, if you would?"

"Of course, father," said Skylor, stepping up to the coil. She reached out to touch the strange energy, which looked like a really bad idea. Sure enough, she screamed and jerked her hand away almost instantly.

"Skylor!" cried out Lloyd in a panic.

Her hand was badly burnt, green energy sparking and swirling around it before seemingly being absorbed into the wound. She cut off her scream, more deliberately than because of any end to her pain, but couldn't stop a few tears from leaking down her face. She impatiently wiped them with her uninjured hand.

"Well?" demanded Chen, not showing the slightest concern for his daughter's injury. "Can you use it?"

Skylor took a few shaky steps toward a machine before the mad scientist guy, probably the Clouse Chen mentioned. She took a deep breath and set her injured hand against the flat surface. It began humming, but died after just a few seconds.

"Barely anything," announced Clouse dismissively. "I told you, Master Chen, we need something larger to control the Green Energy."

Lloyd had heard more than enough. After a couple deep breaths to center himself as Master Wu had taught him, he rose to his feet. Remembering his spinjitzu lessons, he focused all his attention at a single point before him, pulled back a fist, and smashed it forward.

The glass cracked. Green sparks and swirls danced around Lloyd's fist, far brighter than they had around Skylor's, but there was no time to concern himself with that as he heard Chen shouting at Clouse to "STOP HIM!"

Lloyd refocused himself and threw another punch. The glass cracked further, spiderwebbing and splintering but still not broken through.

The Green Ninja, Lord Garmadon's son, Master Wu's nephew and student, leader of the now not so secret Ninja Force, readied a third punch. But he ran out of time.

The crippling pain that had woken him again seized him. His focus shattered and he collapsed to the floor. He tried not to scream but after a few seconds could no longer hold it in. After a few more seconds he was unconscious, though his body still visibly seized and trembled.

Clouse breathed out a sigh of relief, then looked back to his instruments. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and took another look. Then he began laughing in delight.

"WHAT could be so FUNNY?" demanded Chen. "My pet almost escaped! It took months to plan out his capture!"

"He recovered!"

Chen frowned thoughtfully. "What exactly do you mean?"

"We drained him completely, or at least to the limits of what our coil could hold. It should have taken him days, even weeks, to recover - instead it took minutes! And the energy readings I took just now are equal or even superior! I only regret we had no way to store all that power after draining it away."

A creepy smile slowly crept across Chen's face. "So, not just a battery, but a rechargeable battery?"

Clouse smirked. "I'd say one better, sir. I'd call your new pet a generator. He creates it, endlessly if I'm right. Limitless energy, just as the legends say. You'd best keep this one alive."

Skylor ducked her head to hide the surge of hope in her eyes. Maybe, just maybe, her father would not murder Kai's friend as he had so many others.


	2. Chapter 2

Lloyd came to much the same way as last time, screaming in pain. Again, once the pain released him and he regained his senses, he felt a smooth, flat surface against his back. But this time he was upright. Strung up and supported entirely by his chained up arms. Realizing this, he shifted his weight to support himself on his feet, taking some pressure off his aching arms. Especially his right one - it never had been quite the same after being ripped out of joint on the quest for the ultimate ultimate weapon. At least his dad has been able to fix it, but ugh, he tried not to think about that.

"You know, your eyes glow when you're using your power," came Chen's voice, using a completely normal, conversational tone.

A hand reached down and grabbed Lloyd's chin, forcing him to look up to meet the eyes of his captor.

"They also glow when your power is being sucked out of you. It's quite mesmerizing. Pure energy, unable to be held completely within such a small frame. Just exploding out of you. Begging someone to put it to good use."

Lloyd bristled at the touch as well as the words. He wasn't that short! And certainly no one had the right to manhandle him or claim any power he might have as their own!

The Green Ninja closed his eyes and tried to yank his chin away, but Chen's grip was a vise. He must have had martial arts training. Lloyd was determined not to cooperate in any way, but couldn't help a yelp as Chen's free hand went to his strained right shoulder.

"Aw, was this one injured before? Pity for you," said Chen mock tenderly.

Lloyd knew what was coming even before Chen shifted his grip on his right shoulder. This was going to hurt.

Sure enough, Chen wrenched the shoulder and something definitely was pulled out of place.

For nearly a minute, Lloyd couldn't breathe, let alone scream. Could only see black spots as the agony sliced through him. Chen pet his head through it, as if comforting a sick dog or something. Finally Lloyd managed to suck in a deep breath.

"Good little pet," Chen cooed darkly, his sadism obvious in every syllable. Even without seeing his face, Lloyd knew he was smiling at the pain he'd caused. "And my, that is just fascinating!"

Lloyd didn't have to look to see what Chen was talking about. He could feel it now, that strange green energy, sparking and swirling around his dislocated shoulder. Trying to heal him or protect him or something, but helpless with the arm misaligned.

Chen again grabbed his chin, forcing Lloyd's unfocused eyes to latch onto his own.

"Are you ready to grovel yet, pet?" the maniac demanded. "I could put your shoulder back in place. Get you some food and drink. Let you lie down on a real bed."

That sounded amazing. But Lloyd clenched his jaw tight and squeezed his eyes shut.

Chen laughed. "Hah! I knew the son of Garmadon would last longer than that. How about you fill another coil for us, pet?"

And agony exploded through every nerve once again.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

"Lloyd," called an insistent voice. "Lloyd, wake up."

The Green Ninja groaned. He felt a hand on his dislocated shoulder and gasped in sudden pain. His eyes jolted open, darting to the figure in front of him fearfully.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" whispered Skylor, looking pale. "I didn't know he - I'm sorry. Dislocation sucks."

Lloyd focused on the girl in front of him. The noodle shop girl Kai had been crushing on the last month or so. The Fire Ninja had fallen hard for Skylor and had taken every excuse to eat at her family's restaurant just to stare all goo-goo eyed at her.

When they'd actually had her as a waitress, she'd been pretty cool. Even seemed to reciprocate Kai's crush. Now Lloyd wondered if it had all been a sham.

"Skylor," he managed to say, his voice rough like he had laryngitis or something. Probably from all the screaming.

At first it didn't look like she would reply, like she was trying to paint on a mask of cold indifference. As he watched, her eyes flickered to his bad arm and the mask collapsed.

She smiled awkwardly, but her eyes shown with deep pain and fear. Somehow, seeing her face to face, remembering that scene when her dad ordered her to touch the green energy around that strange coil, Lloyd just couldn't believe she was like her father.

Well, he knew all about that, after all.

"You too?" he asked, nodding towards his ruined shoulder, the chains still stringing him up, everything.

"Yeah," she whispered. "Not for a long time, though. Not since I stopped fighting and just let him use my amber power however he wanted." Her eyes, an unusual brownish orange, looked away for a second. Shame? "My father always gets what he wants in the end. You can't fight him."

Lloyd tried to straighten himself up as best he could. His position was much the same as last time, arms chained above him, glass wall behind him. The glass must be important to their project somehow.

Skylor reached over and pulled a lever that was well outside Lloyd's reach, then caught the exhausted Green Ninja as he collapsed at the sudden slack in the chains. She gently eased him to a sitting position, back against the wall.

"I was instructed to give you food, water, and a bit of a break. He expects me to be manipulating you while I'm at it, though honestly I doubt that would work at this point."

She tugged a tray over to between them, and to Lloyd's humiliation he couldn't raise even his not dislocated arm. Skylor seemed to have anticipated this and held the water cup to his lips without any prompting. Lloyd swallowed greedily. He hasn't realized how thirsty he was until the water touched his dry mouth.

"The-the guys. The other Ninja. What's..."

Skylor chewed her bottom lip, her eyes glancing uncomfortably back to the side and behind Lloyd. Probably the door.

"They're frantic. Searching for you. Your master and parents too."

"But no-one's hurt?"

Skylor gave a very small, very fond smile. "You Ninja are so weird. Yes, everyone is fine. For now, anyway. I have no idea what my father is planning to use your power for. Hopefully they'll surrender."

Lloyd gave a slight laugh, part pride, part fear. "Not a chance."

The water cup was empty and Skylor moved on to spooning up the soup. Lloyd absently took a mouthful, not seeing any point in resisting. Even if it was drugged, it wouldn't make much difference. And he really was starving.

"How long have I been here? Where am I?"

Skylor nodded. "I can tell you that. This is the third day. And you're on my father's island."

Lloyd blinked and tried to sit further upright, only to groan and lean back against the wall again. No wonder he was in such bad shape. It wasn't just the power draining and his bad shoulder after all.

"Three days isn't so bad," he tried to reassure himself. "But an island?"

"Yes. My father was banished to this island nearly thirty years ago by Master Wu and Lord Garmadon."

"Crap," groaned Lloyd. "I suppose my family and friends are still searching the city?"

Skylor nodded and offered him another spoonful. The bowl, like the cup, wasn't very big and they were getting to the end of it.

Lloyd took a deep breath and managed to raise his somewhat functional left hand enough to grasp hers.

"Skylor, you don't have to do this. You know he's planning something terrible. Something that will hurt my friends, our friends. That will hurt Kai."

She actually whimpered, her eyes darting behind him to the door again. "I can't, Lloyd. I can't fight him. I-I tried before and I-I can't do that again."

Lloyd couldn't help the exhausted smirk that came to his face. "Sure you can. Kai wouldn't fall for a weakling. You're a good person. I just know it."

She was on the edge of crying, and Lloyd knew this was as far as he could push without her leaving. At least for now.

"So, tell me about your amber power. You can absorb other powers or something?"

Skylor smiled gratefully at the change in subject. "Yeah, something like that. Amber is the element of replication. I can copy the powers of others by touching them. Like this." She set down the spoon in the empty bowl and held out her uninjured hand. After a few moments a glowing green ball appeared, crackling with the same energy as the coil. But it disappeared after just a second.

She smiled slightly, not used to showing off. "Your power is kind of hard to control. Kai's is actually a lot easier." She snapped and a small fire bloomed into existence above her hand. She stared at the fire fondly. Man, she had it as bad as Kai.

"Do you have all of our powers?" asked Lloyd, thinking back to eating at the restaurant. Skylor casually setting her hand on Kai's, patting Jay's shoulder, slapping Cole on the back, shaking hands with Nya... "Zane?"

"Yep," and she frosted her good hand.

"You should ice that one," said Lloyd, gesturing to her injury.

Her eyes widened, not having even thought of that, and quickly did so. It had hurt so much she'd just been trying to ignore it. She immediately sighed with relief.

Lloyd smiled.

Damn. This was killing her. The Green Ninja wasn't supposed to be nice to her. He wasn't supposed to treat her, well, not much different from how he had before knowing about her evil father. If anything, Lloyd was now even nicer. She doubted Kai and the others would be so understanding.

"I drugged your dinner," she suddenly confessed. "That's how we captured you. We've been planning this for months. Stole you right out of your own bed."

Lloyd nodded. "I figured it was something like that. I forgive you."

This time she really did start crying, pulling her knees up to her chest and burying her face behind them to shield her sobs.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

Clouse casually watched on the security monitor while Chen's daughter tended to the ninja brat.

She was much more emotional than he cared for, ugh, but that's children for you. Like her mother, couldn't be trusted. But any bond between the two could work for emotional blackmail in the future so he didn't interrupt. The Green Ninja needed liquid and nourishment anyway, and in his experience using Skylor was much simpler than IV lines.

He'd almost finished his second jar, which would be much more effective at draining the brat than the wall and chains. Should be more secure and transportable as well.

Clouse was also working on new coils to store the Energy. Once he perfected his design they would really be able to see what the legendary Green Ninja was capable of. Powering an army of Nindroids to supplement their forces was certainly well within the equation, as well as several giant mechs to rival the largest and most dangerous of Garmadon's.

Chen seemed to have another idea, one so sinister he giggled each time he thought of it and refused to say anything more at this time than that he needed six of those coils arranged in a special room of his.

Accounting for the Green Ninja's unexpectedly quick recovery time, six coils shouldn't take long. They already had three, with the brat easily filling them up as soon as they were completed.

Speaking of recovery, the Green Ninja was currently about to attempt another jailbreak. He'd managed to stand up and, making use of the slack in the chains, took up a spinjitzu focus pose. Obviously about to attempt to shatter the chains, and probably would be successful if not for Clouse.

Having been waiting for just such an opportunity, Clouse smiled as we watched Green Energy begin to flicker around his unknowing test subject. He kept one eye on the power readout and one hand on the drainage activation button.

Wonderful. Easy confirmation of his earlier hypothesis - the brat's power was exponentially higher when using spinjitzu.

He slapped the button, ignoring the scream and only paying enough attention to verify that the chains had done their job in quickly dragging the child out of his spinjitzu pose and slamming him against the glass wall. Primed and ready to fill another coil with much more refined Energy than previously.

Hmm, much much more refined. He'd estimate the Energy on this coil easily four times as powerful as the others. Perhaps they should look further into brainwashing or some sort of chemical/mechanical enslavement.

Anyway, that made four coils. Better get back to work on making more.


	3. Chapter 3

Lloyd gasped for air, not even bothering to force his eyes open. Sadly, he was getting used to this.

Fifth time. If he assumed he was either blasted into or out of consciousness each time. He really couldn't be sure what they were doing when he was completely out of it. Which was an extremely disturbing thought.

At least he was flat on his back again. Which meant some pressure off his dislocated shoulder, and feeling back in his good arm. (Yeah, the bad arm was still agonizing, but he was trying to be positive.) Another bonus, Chen wouldn't be able to touch him anymore. It was seriously freaky having that creep grab his chin and pat his head.

Of course it also meant being trapped in a giant jar again. That was gonna do some weird stuff to his psyche. Provided he ever got out of here to see a therapist.

No. Nope, not gonna think like that. Not three, maybe four days now, into captivity. He had to be positive or he would break. And he couldn't break. He was the Green Ninja. He would face this head on! Ninja never quit!

Which meant he had to open his eyes.

Lloyd groaned and allowed his eyes to open, staring up at the curved glass walls and strange metal lid to his jar. Same as the first time. Though probably stronger. And the first one had been too strong to bust out of quickly enough. Crap. He had no clue what to do. Where to start, even.

Come to think of it, it would probably surprise most of the people in Ninjago to know this sort of thing had never happened to him before. It's pretty much a staple story arc of every comic book, movie, and TV show. The hero gets captured for some nefarious reason and has to stay sane and plan their escape to stop whatever villainous plot was in the works.

Of course, Lloyd's only "villain" had been his dad, and Garmadon had never actually captured any of the Ninja. As far as Lloyd knew, he'd never even attempted to - instead trying to defeat them with sheer numbers and overwhelming firepower.

Chen was an entire different brand of villain. As evidenced by the fact that no one in Ninjago City knew he was a villain, even with his face plastered on advertisements all over the place. Chen's Noodle House was extremely popular.

Lloyd sighed to himself. He'd better get his act together. What would he be telling his friends if they were here with him?

Hang on. Help is coming. Find out what the bad guys want.

He'd been telling himself the first two from the beginning, and the third seemed pretty obvious.

Power.

But why Lloyd's power? Lloyd hadn't even known he had power, and certainly not some sort of coveted green energy. Why not Kai, for his fire? Fire was an excellent source of power. Or Jay - lightning was even better, especially if they wanted energy for mechs or electronics. Really, any of his friends could be used as a "battery", as Chen had called him the first day. (He assumed it had been the first day.)

It was a bit of relief that it was him, though. He hated to think of any of his friends in this situation. He was their leader, after all.

Anyway, green energy. Why "Green Energy"? What even was this power?

Master Wu knew everything, pretty much. So what had he told Lloyd about his powers? What had Lloyd missed?

Green. That was all Master Wu had said. His element was Green. Not nature, not life, not connection, just... Green.

Green. The color of the forest, surrounded by lush plants of all sorts. But it wasn't nature. When Lloyd had said it was what ties everything together, Uncle Wu hadn't corrected him. In fact, he'd looked quite proud.

Green ties everything together. Green ties people together. Animals together. Plants together.

He thought about his 'piece'...

Elements together?

Chen and Clouse has apparently been studying Skylor's amber power for years. That was somehow related, somehow important. The power to replicate other powers. So the amber power... became other powers? Copied their elements? But she couldn't copy Green, not well anyway.

Because Green wasn't an element? Or Green was too powerful or too different?

Well, what has he seen Green do? The first time he saw it, it was crackling and swirling around a coil, kind of like a green version of Jay's blue lightning, but more... fluid?

When Skylor tried to copy it, absorb it?, control it?, it had burned her. Power? But Clouse was able to direct and store it, so energy?

Okay, moving on. Next time was around his fist as he focused his spinjitzu. That had certainly never happened before. But it hadn't felt strange and wasn't at all painful. If anything, it had strengthened his blows to the glass. So maybe something like Cole's super-strength? It could enhance him somehow?

Maybe. What else...

Chen had said it made his eyes glow when he used his power, and when his power was drained. None of his friends had anything like that, though Zane's eyes were ice blue (but Lloyd was pretty sure those were just lightbulbs) and Skylor's could be called "amber". But he couldn't recall them glowing in connection with their powers. Or maybe he just hadn't noticed?

The sparks had swirled around his shoulder when Chen dislocated it. Which you'd think would mean it was trying to heal him or protect him or something. That didn't work with it being some energy that could be channeled into a weapon or used to run a computer. A shield, maybe? Usually the team used Zane or Nya when they needed a shield. Cole could too, in a tight spot, as long as they were on land. Kai or Jay would just cause damage if they tried something like that. Or to heal? But it hadn't helped the pain at all, and certainly didn't fix his arm. And why would a villain even want something like that?

Ugh, this didn't make any sense! If only he had learned about this before! If only he had some clue what Green was or how he used it or what Chen and Clouse knew!

Lloyd took a deep breath, then another. Getting upset wasn't helping. If only he could... well, why not?

They must have a camera on him. How else had they known when he'd been about to escape the chains? Skylor hadn't been touching anything, and he didn't think she would've stopped him anyway. So, cameras. He'd have to be careful.

Lloyd made a show of, or rather made no attempt to hide, his pain, as he used his three good limbs to roll over and push himself up. Looking around, he saw no one in the room. He sat back against the glass and positioned his useless arm in his lap, holding it by the forearm with his good hand, then pulled up his knees to press his forehead against them.

A position of weakness, pain, that would scream helpless to his captors if they were watching him.

After a few minutes in which he was left alone, he leaned ever so slightly back. His face was still hidden, as well as his good hand. He took a deep, steadying breath, and focused.

Green sparks flickered around his hand. They were warm, and didn't seem to cause any static. They also glowed, and actually left little trails of green light wherever they danced. It was very odd, and sort of pretty.

He focused a bit more and the sparks swirled around themselves until they began to combine and glow steadily, soon forming a small flickering ball. Much like Skylor had demonstrated, but he had no problem holding it. He was fairly sure he could even make it grow, if he wanted it to.

Shield, thought Lloyd to himself, frowning at the ball. Protect. Block. Guard. It slowly flattened and expanded. Lloyd was deeply focused on keeping it small enough to hide between his torso and legs. The energy seemed to, condense, for want of a better word. Harden. When he ran his thumb over the solid energy, it felt similar to the glass he sat against.

Heal, thought Lloyd hopefully, concentrating as he curled to hopefully hide his dislocated shoulder from whatever cameras they must have. The small, green, glasslike plate around his hand seemed to melt back into the earlier ball, then to the sparks. He pressed his hand against his shoulder as gently as he could, but nothing seemed to happen. Rats.

Well, he wouldn't be a Ninja if he didn't at least try to fix his shoulder, right? He'd studied how to do this after his arm had been dislocated on the quest for the ultimate ultimate weapon.

Either they stopped him, or they didn't. Either way was going to be agony. He might as well try. The longer he waited the worse it would be.

Shakily getting to his feet, keeping his senses alert to any changes in his surroundings, he grit his teeth and positioned his bad arm just so against the glass. Man, the book could've warned that a dead arm was actually quite heavy and extremely difficult to maneuver with only one good arm. (And painful, but that was kind of a given.) He finally got his arm in position, angled his bad shoulder just right, then SHOVED.

There was a disgusting crack/thunk sound, but immediate relief from his shoulder and feeling in his right arm. It burned and buzzed as nerves came alive, but that was nothing compared to the earlier agony of dislocation.

Green sparks swirled around his shoulder, then wound down his arm, this time sinking in and providing immediate relief. Lloyd could only stare in wonder as he flexed his hand, his arm, his shoulder. Huh. It couldn't fix something broken, but once something was back in place it, what, advanced natural healing or something? All he knew was that within a minute his arm felt normal again.

He remembered some random lecture at school about how energy traveled through the body, connecting all the nerves and communicating with the brain. Uncle Wu talked about stuff like that too, during ninja training.

Though he still was no closer to knowing what Green was. It seemed to be, well, anything.

Anything?

Fire, he thought, cupping his hands and staring at them, no longer trying to hide. Either they would stop him or they wouldn't. Either they weren't paying attention to him... or they were as curious as he was.

A flickering flame-like wisp of energy appeared in the bowl of his hands. It was warm, and actually grew hotter the longer he held it.

Lightning. The flame shifted into bolts, sparks, zipping back and forth and around. The hair on his arms stood up - static.

No way, thought Lloyd, staring in shock. But he had to keep going at this point.

Water. The sparks seemed to melt into a goo, then shift into a liquid he could actually pour from hand to hand, though not one drop spilled.

Ice. The liquid froze, for want of a better word, transforming into a lovely crystal with a noticeably lower temperature. Same as with the 'fire', the longer he held it, the colder it got.

This was impossible. Completely impossible.

"And earth," Lloyd murmured aloud, this time not sure what he was expecting. Cole usually pounded his hands together to form a shockwave or punched the ground, either causing a quake or rocks to burst from underground. He also could lift thousands of pounds and punch through over six feet of solid concrete.

Perhaps because Lloyd didn't know what he wanted, the energy stayed as ice.

Earth, thought Lloyd, trying again. Strength. Ground. Rock. This time the 'ice' reformed, shimmering back into sparks that swirled and sunk into his forearms. Without thinking, Lloyd fisted both hands as he'd seen Cole do and punched them together.

There was a tremendous BOOM that rocked the room. Lloyd himself was flung against the wall of the jar by the force, and crashed flat on his stomach once it was over. Unfortunately, the jar and all the equipment in the room seemed intact.

And, yeah, that caught the bad guys' attention.


	4. Chapter 4

_Update 4-27-19: Minor addition to Skylor and Lloyd scene for clarity. No changes to plot or dialogue. _

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

"What are you up to that has Clouse so fascinated, little pet?" cooed Chen, walking up to the jar and setting a possessive hand against the glass.

The Green Ninja visibly bit back a groan as he climbed back upright and backed as far away as he could from his captor, pressing back against the glass. The ninja didn't answer, but that didn't really surprise Chen. So far his pet had been quite reticent, which suited him just fine. He so disliked being disrespected.

"Playing with your newfound powers, hmm? Don't let me stop you, little one! Green Power is the essence of legends, after all. You're the first Master of Green in history! Your existence prophesied by the First Spinjitzu Master himself, thousands of years ago! Though I seriously doubt he expected it to be his grandson, going by the ignorance of your father and lack of essence training from your uncle."

Chen smiled as he read the interest in the Green Ninja's body language, even as the boy kept his eyes determinedly on his own feet. The old master was excellent at knowing what people were thinking just by watching them. Thus his many worshipful followers. People were so easy to manipulate!

He rested his forehead against the glass and just watched as his pet fidgeted, eventually glancing up as the silence stretched on.

Chen just grinned. The Green Ninja's jaw hardened in anger. Those distinctive green eyes practically glinted. How could the fools of Ninjago City never have made the connection between Lloyd Garmadon and the Green Ninja without the truth being thrown in their faces? No other being in the world had eyes like that.

"Don't you want to know what I know, pet? I know ever so much. I could train you, even. You could do things your little ninja friends could never imagine."

The child was doing everything just short of clapping his hands over his ears to NOT take heed of his captor's words. Every stiff muscle screamed "I AM NOT INTERESTED!" with such force it was obviously self-denial.

"Sounds good, hmm? Would you like that? To be more than just my little battery? I could use another student. Your father was once an excellent student. You know, I was the one that gave him the title Lord."

He grinned at the sudden flick of green eyes up to his face. Ah, the boy was a sucker for stories about his daddy. Lord Garmadon must not be very open with stories of his dark past.

"Oh, yes. It was a duel between Clouse and Garmadon, my two prize students. The winner would be given the title Lord and the authority as my second in command. I told them to go all out. Clouse played fairly. Your father cheated, and thus won."

The boy's eyes were glued to his face now, hungry for more though the ninja would undoubtedly fiercely deny it.

Chen pretended to be reminiscing, even as he studied his new pet out of the corner of his eye. "Yes, Garmadon still looked human back then. Brown hair and eyes, normal skin, only two arms. It took decades for the Great Devourer's poison to advance to where it is today."

The Green Ninja opened his mouth to ask a question, but visibly cut himself off and looked away.

That was enough for now. Had to keep his pet wanting more. A little here, a little there, and the boy will be anticipating his visits before he knew it! An eager puppy, all but wagging its tail as master came over.

Chen looked forward to it.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

Skylor thought she had long since mastered not caring. So her father enslaved and killed people, big whoop. So he had locked her up and experimented on her after her mom died, whatever. So he'd trained her to be his obedient little spy - get over it and move on!

She didn't care anymore. You know what? She never had cared. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Master Chen got whatever he wanted, and if she wanted to stay alive and free, she had to play his game. And play it well.

She'd been a spy for over six years now, and for the last three she'd had the privilege of being HANDS OFF for Clouse's experiments. In that time, and at her father's orders, she'd copied over a dozen powers and helped capture at least four various elemental masters. They were all now dead, their corpses laid at her own feet. Not the main Ninja, of course, as Chen had been insistent that they weren't ready to attract Wu and Garmadon's attention, and certainly not to take on the main five elemental masters.

And then the Green Ninja had appeared.

Skylor hadn't understood what the big deal was. Like, how is "green" even an element? All he did was make friends with a giant cat! Her amber power was so much better. Elite, the best of the best. Why it wasn't ranked as high as the five so-called main elements, when it could copy any of them, was beyond her. There was nothing they had that she didn't. Right? Well, maybe spinjitzu. She couldn't do that tornado thing. But otherwise she was an excellent fighter easily on par with any of them!

So it was just... weird. Seeing her father and Clouse so excited. Whispering about shortcuts, and cheating, and a power beyond all others.

Seriously?! It was just a stupid cat! She could've blasted the thing herself! But no, she had to hide behind the counter in the noodle shop and pretend to be terrified. She had to fall all over the Ninja in appreciation for their "saving the day" - as if a good chunk of the city wasn't still destroyed. She had to exclaim over how she'd had no idea the Green Ninja was Lloyd Garmadon - even though it had been so obvious even before her father told her the identities of all six Ninja. Lloyd Garmadon is seriously the only person in Ninjago City with bright green eyes, and he hangs out with five people, one of whom is a robot and another a girl. It wasn't particularly hard. The idiots even wear their signature Ninja colors on their casual clothes.

The Master of Amber, heir to Chen's empire (provided he ever died - he just might be immortal at this point), had dosed Lloyd's dinner that night without any thoughts beyond following her father's orders. Or so she told herself.

Certainly the attention from the Fire Ninja was flattering, and my was he cute, strong, brave, clever. The way he stared at her and tripped over his own tongue trying to be suave was adorable. And she was beginning to think she'd be able to win him over to her father's side as a lieutenant - Fire was Power after all, the most aggressive and destructive of all the elements. He thought rather highly of himself, his talent and power, and she'd be lying to say she wasn't attracted to that confidence.

And it was good strategy to befriend the Ninja, or at least give the impression of doing so. Kai's flirting was fun. Cole's smirks and snarky comments made her smile. Jay and Nya's teasing. Zane's polite kindness. Wu's sage wisdom. Koko's open affection. Garmadon's, well, the guy was just FUNNY when he wasn't trying to conquer Ninjago!

And Lloyd. Her target. Sweet and gentle and so freely trusting. So easily hurt. You'd think he was half the age of the others, he was so innocent. It should be impossible with his history. He should be like her - jaded, cold, a liar painting on a mask to manipulate others. And with no sign of any of this "Green" power, despite his title of Green Ninja and that weird little speech about Green being Life, Connection, Love, blah blah blah.

It had been a simple matter to drug the silly boy, as she'd thought of him. Skylor had learned where he lived weeks ago, and simply headed on over once her shift was over, via rooftops and dressed in black. Just as she'd estimated, the boy, the child, had collapsed on his bed, still fully clothed but completely unconscious. He wouldn't wake for anything, not for at least twelve hours. She'd carried him herself to the drop point, where he'd been picked up by a couple of her father's stooges to be taken to the island.

He was supposed to die. Her father and Chen were supposed to realize there was nothing special about Lloyd Garmadon and cut their losses. And no, that thought hadn't bothered her at all. Nope, not at all. As she told herself again and again and again.

Instead of disappointment, however, she witnessed ever growing excitement as they placed the leader of the Ninja into some incredibly weird jar thing next to an even weirder giant coil. She saw Clouse taking weird tests and giggling his head off as he examined the results. Her father, literally dancing with eagerness. And then, when they were finally ready, they had turned the machine on.

Lloyd had screamed. Screamed more than she ever had, as if they were turning him inside out. Forcing, dragging something out from his deepest core. Something not ready to come out, maybe would not have ever been ready to come out. And the jar and coil had been awash in a strange, swishing, sparkling, flowing green energy that had everyone in the room staring in awe.

It was unlike any of the elements Skylor had ever seen before. Lighting crackled, Fire swooshed, Earth trembled, Water flowed, Ice glistened. This Green Energy her father and Clouse so lusted after seemed to combine traits of all of them. It almost danced, like the aurora she'd seen pictures of far to the north, with swirling sparks within like twinkling, playful stars. And it wasn't just a pretty light show; it had a physical power, a pull, that was unmistakable and quite frightening to be in the same room with. And yet so beautiful it ached. She'd known it would burn her long before her father instructed her to try use it.

And, instead of not caring, she felt like crying. Lloyd would live. He would be useful to her father, like her, and she wouldn't have a friend's death on her hands. Not that Lloyd was her friend.

Lloyd finally stopped screaming, but was shaking and twitching and trembling in exhaustion and pain and probably some weird problems caused by having his until then inactive power ripped out of him.

He should've been spitting hatred. Those green eyes should have been glistening in hate, demanding that she just go die. Instead he'd been confused, and once he recognized her, worried. Sympathetic.

Lloyd Garmadon was still the Green Ninja. Still unbelievably compassionate and sweet and emotionally vulnerable and weak. Or, so she'd thought.

In truth, he was stronger then she had ever been. How could one so weak have such strength? Refuse to give in so completely? Be able to extend forgiveness so easily? It should be impossible! Hadn't she proved to herself that it was impossible? Used it to justify her every vile action under her father's orders?

She was supposed to be the strong one. Didn't survival equal strength? So what if the price of survival was giving in to the evil.

Yet, HE comforted HER. Even knowing she was at fault for his situation. Even knowing this had been planned for months.

He... asked her to help him. Believed she would help him. Truly thought there was some good in her, despite all evidence to the contrary. Even as good as said she was worthy of Kai.

Skylor didn't know what to do. She wasn't strong. All along she had been the weak one, feeling sorry for herself and thinking she had no choice. She'd had a choice all along.

It was time to make a choice.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

Skylor knocked on the glass, startling Lloyd out of his quiet contemplation. He had probably been thinking about his new powers, staring at his hands like that.

"Hey, Lloyd," she greeted softly, smiling gently as he looked her way. "Got some food and water, but I'll have to lower it to you."

Lloyd smiled in acknowledgment, that irritatingly angelic little half-smile he could give no matter the situation. "Hey, Skylor. Oh, I can't tell you how good a bite and a drink sound!"

Skylor pulled a lever, and a small, fragile looking robotic arm thing lowered from the ceiling. It strongly resembled the type of flimsy cupholder you'd find in a cheap car. There were spaces for two cups on the end. She slipped a water bottle into one and a hot cup filled with soup in the other.

The arm thing slowly rose to the ceiling, then over the metal lid at the top of Lloyd's jar. There was a sharp, metallic sliding sound, and an opening only just large enough for the thing to pass through appeared. Way too high and too small to escape through, not that the arm thing could possibly hold his weight. Oh well.

Lloyd took the water bottle first, chugging the entire thing in less than a minute. He set the empty bottle back in the cupholder and helped himself to the soup. There was no spoon, but then it was mostly just broth. He could just tip the cup for the tiny pieces of meat and vegetable.

Skylor didn't seem in a rush, and didn't complain when Lloyd took a seat facing her instead of hurrying up to finish his paltry meal. Rather, she also sat down facing him.

"Do you know anything about Green?" asked Lloyd, as he sipped at his hot cup.

"Not really," replied Skylor. "Only what I saw. That it's some sort of beautiful and powerful energy that my father and Clouse are gaga for. And that it packs a mean punch." She held up her bandaged left hand as evidence, trying to make light of her injury. "Why?"

Lloyd frowned thoughtfully. "Because I'm wondering if it may be related to Amber somehow."

Skylor blinked in surprise. "That's... an odd idea. Like, I'd understand it being related to Lightning. Electricity, Energy, you know. Why my power?"

He frowned thoughtfully, took another swallow of soup, and visibly decided to trust her. He held out his right hand, his left holding his cup, and snapped as he'd seen Skylor do earlier to demonstrate Fire.

Skylor's mouth dropped open as a green flame appeared over his hand. As she stared, it swirled around into green bolts of lightning, then seemed to wrap itself around Lloyd's hand and freeze, turning into a glistening layer of green ice.

She looked back up to Lloyd's face. His eyes were on the hand controlling his power, frowning slightly in concentration. He seemed to sense the shift in her focus and relaxed. The ice seemed to melt, shifting back into those glowing green sparks and swirls that seemed most natural to it.

"I seem to be able to copy other elements. But they're always green and not quite right," said Lloyd.

"Do they have all the same properties?" asked Skylor, extremely interested. "Is it just the color that's odd?"

"I think so," answered Lloyd. "But it's not like I ever had elemental powers before, so I'm not sure." He finished off his soup cup, looked at it sadly for a second, then put it back in the cupholder thing. No sense leaving trash around.

"How about we compare?" asked Skylor. "I've had my power as long as I can remember, and I've practiced a LOT with the main elements. Want to try?"

Lloyd's eyes sparkled like the time the restaurant had been out of fortune cookies so she gave them free custard tarts after their meal. "Yes, please!" he cheered.

And, ah man, that 'please' was practically invented to mess with her heart. Especially combined with those adorable puppy eyes.

Skylor made herself comfortable and held out both hands. Even bandaged, she should be able to use her left hand for this, and the elements would have to be a bit larger and stronger for Lloyd to be able to observe all the nuance.

A bit of concentration, and Kai's flames billowed into being above her open palms.

Lloyd studied the flames seriously for over two minutes. If he applied half as much dedication to studying spinjitzu, it was no wonder Wu had appointed him leader. Finally, he leaned back, held out both hands, open palmed in imitation of Skylor, and allowed green flames to erupt from his own hands.

Both teens were abruptly yanked forward, smacking into the glass. Thankfully their powers had dissipated the second they'd been yanked forward, that strange magnetic pull snapping in the same instant, so neither was seriously hurt. Their startled eyes met and after a second they started to laugh.

"What WAS that?" giggled Lloyd, rubbing his sore forehead.

"I have no idea! Let's do it again!" laughed Skylor in return, checking her aching cheekbone with her good hand. There didn't seem to be any bruising, and the pain was already fading. The whole thing had been so completely unexpected!

"Ok, but smaller this time!"

"Agreed!"

They both made small flames above just a single hand, and there was a definite pull between the two. Both teens were wide-eyed in wonder as they let their arms and flames be pulled forward until they were only separated by glass.

"Fire pulls Fire? Or is it Green?" asked Lloyd, studying the flames in fascination. "Or maybe Green pulls Amber?"

"Let's find out!" said Skylor excitedly. "Ice next?"

They went through all the main elements, with the same results. A strange sort of magnetic pull between them. But there was nothing if Lloyd just left Green in its natural state, only when he 'copied' the other elements. Even when Skylor replicated Green, there was no pull between the two.

"This is so weird," commented Skylor, but her eyes were shining. This was probably the most fun she'd ever had with her powers! It was cool too, seeing Green shift between forms and phases. Lloyd seemed to need a lot more concentration than her to control it, but then he was much newer at this.

"Does Amber have a sort of natural state?" asked Lloyd. "Like Green?"

"Nope," replied Skylor. "It's all or nothing. If I'd never touched another elemental master, I wouldn't have any powers at all."

"Huh," went Lloyd. "Well, how about we see how the different elements react to each other? Like Earth and Ice, or Fire and Water?"

"Sounds fun!"

And over two hours of messing around and giggling followed, with the two trying every combination they could think of. Multiple combinations too, once Skylor showed Lloyd how she could use different elements at the same time, say Earth literally on one hand and Fire on the other. Lloyd wasn't able to copy that trick, at least not yet, so they had to settle with combinations up to three. With some rather surprising results! Some drew together, some pushed apart. Some grew stronger together, some seemed to weaken each other. Some even seemed to start to try to combine! Though of course they couldn't, through the special glass of the jar.

But only with Green in the mix, in some form or other. If Skylor tried to combine or mix elements on her own, nothing happened. They remained completely unaffected by each other. It was so cool!

Skylor also reached another conclusion, one unrelated to elements. Somewhere in the midst of all the smiling and laughter and trading of ideas and new discoveries, Skylor realized Lloyd really was her friend now. And she did have to help him.

She'd made her choice.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

_Author's Notes: Credit where it is due - Sunny Lighter (an excellent writer with over 20 stories to her name and more on the way, including an epic movie/show Ninjago crossover!), gets credit for inspiring that last section! She kindly let me know that we needed more Lloyd and Skylor interaction. She's done a ton of beta work for this story, previewing future chapters and helping me improve them. Thank you so much, Sunny! _

_Also special thanks to Sunny Lighter, Carrie2sky, EMPFangirl02, Bookkeeper2004, and at least one unnamed Guest who have graciously reviewed every single chapter so far! You are all very special and I do indeed wait to see your reviews appear every time I post! _

_For those that don't know, I PM replies and thank you's to every signed-in review I receive. Especially if you have questions or comments, please do sign in or at least leave your account name in your review so I can get back to you. _

_Thank you all and hope you're enjoying the story! It looks like we'll be done by chapter 8, but there will be room for a sequel if anyone's interested._


	5. Chapter 5

The sixth coil was complete. The Green Ninja lay gasping on the floor of his jar, unaware of this marker in the advancement of their plans.

Well, whatever Chen's plan was, anyway. Clouse himself was quite happy to be done collecting those six coils so that he could start experimenting with Green Energy to advance his own ideas. His current favorite was to find a way to combine the jar and coil, making the boy into a portable core for a giant doomsday device. Maybe add some legs and arms and make the device into a transportable mech!

This morning's little show by the baby Garmadon had been fascinating! Watching the boy experiment with his powers, running through many of the simulations Clouse would have ordered him to, if he thought for a moment that the ninja would listen. It was incredible, witnessing the Green Energy copying other elements - and yet, in a way completely different from Amber's replication. It wasn't a perfect copy, not even really an imitation. It took on a different form, a different purpose, yet it remained Green. Even as it changed states, changed temperatures, changed behavior.

And the way it had interacted, almost played with Amber - truly fascinating! Not even Chen had been able to interrupt when he came in to the observation room to check up on Clouse's progress and his pet's condition, only to find his daughter was shirking her duties to experiment with the Green Ninja. They couldn't hear what the children were talking about, but the results of their toying around were quite clear and extremely interesting.

Man, Clouse wanted to make Green into a bomb (well, more of a grenade - didn't want to accidentally kill their prize, after all). Or maybe a ray gun. He bet he could level Ninjago City in one go with either of those. Maybe there was a way to force the boy to focus the power into a beam, or the opposite and compress more and more until it could explode on impact? Now that would be a sight to behold! But it was unlikely the child would cooperate, so he'd have to drain the Energy and figure out how to do just that on his own.

And if the Ninja came after them to recover their stolen leader, give Clouse a couple days and a few more coils, and he was sure he could have up an invincible shield around the entire island. But they shouldn't have to worry about that. Skylor reported that they were still searching Ninjago City.

The ultimate power. Clouse couldn't stop his giggle. It was stupidly impossible. A myth. A legend. Truly the only purpose for it would be to take on the Overlord, thus why it had been so deeply dormant. It probably would only have come forth in the awakening of the Great Evil that even the First Spinjitzu Master has been unable to defeat. Or perhaps in a more minor form, as a shield or something, in the event of its wielder facing an otherwise lethal situation.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

"Hey guys," greeted Skylor as a depressed looking quintet of teenage Ninja slumped through the door into her father's restaurant. "No luck?"

"None," groaned Kai, apparently the only one up for speaking.

Without bothering to ask if they needed menus, she gestured them to their usual corner booth. They flopped into place, obviously exhausted both mentally and physically.

"Your usuals?" They all nodded, mumbling thanks and appreciation.

Skylor disappeared to put their order in for the kitchen and returned quickly with the group's usual drinks. Well, usual since Lloyd had gone missing - they certainly hadn't used to order espresso drinks this late. She also had a tray of leftover egg tarts, custard bread, and sesame seed balls from the lunch rush that she brought over, free of charge.

She really is awesome, Kai thought as he took a deep chug of his caramel macchiato. The caffeine and sugar did wonders for his headache. He snagged an egg tart before Cole inhaled all their free goodies.

Skylor took a seat at the table, her own regular coffee in hand. "Seriously, guys, is everything going ok?"

"We haven't found Lloyd, or any leads," grouched Cole, shoving a sesame seed ball whole into his mouth. "Do we look ok?" The sarcasm was bitingly harsh, which wasn't like him at all.

"But you must have combed the whole city by now!" she fretted. "What about the east side? And I thought you said there were some petty crooks that Lloyd -"

"East side was a bust," whispered Jay, barely audible. "Almost got myself mugged for nothing. Stupid wannabe gangsters. Just upset they can't work for Garmadon anymore."

"And all of the criminals we had a hand in capturing are accounted for," added Zane sadly. "I personally walked through Ninjago Prison and matched every criminal Lloyd has ever put away to their prison ID, personal ID, and my own memories. Nya even came along, in case my memory files had been corrupted somehow."

Nya shook her head angrily, not saying anything. Probably for the better, as she looked really close to starting a fight just for some sort of release.

Skylor looked down at her coffee, swirling it sadly. There went those tragic eyes she usually sought too hard to hide. The eyes that reminded Kai so much of Lloyd's, before they became friends. Empty, miserable, devoid of any hope for change - yet she still tried so hard to be pleasant to people.

It was probably those sad eyes when she wasn't looking at anyone, coupled with that not quite sincere half-smile when she did, that had first caught Kai's attention. All these weeks later, and he still was no clearer about the reason for those eyes - but at least, for a while, they'd started getting real smiles out of her. Until Lloyd was taken.

"Well, the least I can do is make sure you guys eat. Since you have no intention of sleeping," she lightly teased, getting to her feet. She set her hand on Kai's shoulder for just a moment, meeting his eyes, something oddly hopeful but genuinely scared in them. He tried to smile back, hoping to return her attempt at comfort, but just couldn't.

Kai sadly followed her with his eyes as she headed to the kitchen to check on their orders and those of the few tables occupied in her section right now. To think, last week his greatest worry had been whether she'd say yes to a date with him. He looked away.

The five Ninja sat broodingly in their booth, overly aware of the space between Zane and Kai where Lloyd usually sat. But none of them could quite suggest spacing themselves out a little more to fill the gap.

Skylor arrived a few minutes later with a large platter of noodles and smaller platters of barbecue chicken, spicy beef, and dumplings. She passed out the plates and they all dug in.

"I'm sure he's fine," she tried, a little desperately, to comfort them. "Any time now, you guys will get the lead you've been waiting for."

Dead silence answered her. She couldn't bring herself to say any more and slipped away, softly saying something about cleaning some tables before the dinner rush.

They greedily ate in that awkward, mournful silence, not having had anything since breakfast.

Kai felt like crying. Maybe he just should. In this particular situation, he doubted even his sister would tease him about it. The last few days had been just the worst.

Another pointless day of searching. Four days of pain and fear and worry, starting from that terrifying call from Koko that she couldn't find Lloyd.

Lloyd never left home without telling his mom. He had always made at least an excuse before rushing out. More than that, someone had silently broken into their home. The glass from their kitchen window had been painstakingly and completely silently cut out and placed on the counter. But nothing was missing - nothing but Lloyd.

Koko has explained that miserable first day that nothing out of the ordinary had happened the previous night. He'd just come home really tired. Actually gone to bed without taking a shower, crashed without even changing out of his day clothes.

Normally the police wouldn't really be interested in a teen only just discovered missing, especially in the particular area where Koko lived, and especially especially for anyone with the last name Garmadon. But now they knew Lloyd Garmadon was the Green Ninja, the core of their (not-so-) Secret Ninja Force, one of the heroes who regularly had risked their own lives to protect the city.

It made sense for a rebellious teenager to skip out on his single mom. It did not make sense for the Green Ninja who had recently reformed his evil warlord father to disappear on his mother, to leave his phone behind, to not contact any other Ninja or his master or said reformed (somewhat - at least he no longer invaded the city) warlord.

The only answer was that Lloyd Garmadon, the Green Ninja, had been kidnapped.

The police immediately began investigating. The news station was more than happy to release a statement requesting any information on the missing Green Ninja or who might have taken him (as well as to discuss Lloyd Garmadon and his personal life endlessly). The Ninja ditched school to go house to house asking for help. Lord Garmadon sent out his armies to search the city (which ended up being more trouble than anything, but hey, he was trying). Koko hadn't gone in to work, staying glued to her apartment and phone in case Lloyd managed to escape and tried to contact her or came home. Wu had been contacting old friends and associates to ask if anyone had been showing an uncomfortable interest in his nephew.

So here they were, once again gathered for dinner at Chen's Noodle House. It was pretty centrally located from all their homes, and fairly close to Lloyd's. Another unproductive day, with absolutely nothing to show. Rumors were beginning to start up, some quite nasty such as the nonsensical one that Lloyd had run away after being infected with his father's evil.

"Is- is he even alive?" stammered out a dismal Jay to the quiet table.

Nya raised her hand to slap him, but Cole grabbed it and shook his head.

"Don't hate the only person willing to say it," Cole said softly, barely above a whisper. "We're all beginning to wonder if Lloyd is..."

"I don't! Because he's not!" growled Nya fiercely, still glaring at a now trembling Jay, shrinking away from her. But the hot tears plus her violent reaction to Jay's question betrayed her anxiety at just such an outcome.

"It is very unlikely Lloyd's captors would murder him after so much effort to capture and hide him," comforted Zane, staring into his water glass. "The odds are against it. They took him for a reason. They haven't contacted the city or Koko or Garmadon or even us with any demands, so they wanted him, his person."

"Isn't that worse?" choked out Kai. And his tears broke free. At least he wasn't sobbing, so he just covered his eyes with a hand while he fought for control.

None of the Ninja had an immediate answer to that. One of the first lessons Wu had taught them was to not be afraid of death. But at the same time he had prepared them for capture, interrogation, torture. They were all very well aware of what could be going on.

Cole groaned, rubbing his temples as if trying to get his thoughts to work better. "None of this makes sense!" he grumbled. "Why Lloyd? And why couldn't he fight back? Why hasn't he escaped by now? How can no one have seen or heard anything?"

Jay nervously fidgeted, tapping his fingers against the table. The others had long since become used to Jay's anxiety and let him have his outlet. It didn't really irritate them anymore.

"Maybe we're looking at this wrong?" he murmured, frowning. "Instead or thinking so much about what happened that we missed after we split up that night, maybe we should think about before. What did Lloyd do that day? If he was drugged or something, it would explain why Koko said he was so tired. Why there was no sign of a struggle."

"We would have noticed!" immediately shot down Nya. "We were with him all day! School, Ninja training, a movie, then we came here for a late dinner. We would have noticed if someone messed with him or he started acting weird!"

"Not necessarily," inserted Zane, sounding thoughtful. "There are any number of drugs that could cause drowsiness hours after application. Several concoctions could even ensure complete unconsciousness for a specific amount of time, depending on dosage."

He blinked, then frowned, obviously going through the data in his head.

"Most of them have to be digested."

As if waiting for that cue, their waitress Skylor dropped off the bill at Kai's elbow. "Whenever you guys are ready," she said softly, already on her way to another table.

They'd eaten at Chen's that night.

Kai was the first to recover, shakily reaching for the bill. On the top in cute, cursive script was a large, "Call me!" with a heart and a phone number beneath. Oddly forward for Skylor, and extremely suspicious considering Zane's last comment.

He shook his head wearily. No, no. He was just being paranoid. Almost absently he flipped it over to see the receipt below, when he noticed there was small block writing on the back.

"Don't react. Being watched. Want to help. Top of Lloyd's apt bldg. 7:10pm."

Only Kai's ninja training kept him from freaking out.

"Finally got Skylor's number and I can't even enjoy it," he complained, casually passing the receipt (and note) over to Zane. As Zane emotionlessly looked it over, Kai pulled out his wallet and put some bills on the table to cover himself. Everyone else did the same, casually looking over the 'receipt' and putting enough cash to cover their share of the meal and tip onto the table.

"It's only five, guys. Want to check in with Koko?" asked Nya.

They all agreed, only freaking out once they were safely in Koko and Lloyd's apartment with the door shut.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

Skylor was terrified. Almost paralyzed with fear. Fear of betraying her father, of Clouse's experiments, of Lord Garmadon and Lady Irondragon and vengeful Ninja.

Zane had all but figured it out. They were probably right now analyzing her note and the revelation that Lloyd was probably drugged at dinner. Probably by his waitress. Her. Who had been subtly flirting with Kai and getting to know all of them for weeks.

Wu and Garmadon would probably make the connection immediately to her father, even if they didn't know Chen had a daughter. They certainly remembered him, and had been visibly uncomfortable the first time they had joined the Ninja for dinner there.

So. She'd written 7:10 to meet them all. She got off at 7, and allowed 10 minutes to change clothes, sneak off into a dark alley, slip on a black sweater, cap, and gloves, climb a fire escape, and finally make her way over to Lloyd's apartment building.

They were obviously going to ambush her. Corner her, grab her, probably tie her up and haul her into Irondragon's apartment for questioning. Maybe even the Ninja headquarters or Garmadon's volcano.

She actually shivered and almost turned back at the thought of Lord Garmadon, finally getting his hands on his son's captor. She'd heard his 'public announcements' that instead of encouraging people to come forward probably scared them off. (Not that anyone knew anything.) He'd probably boil her alive if no one stopped him.

She'd better give the Ninja a damn good reason to stop him.


	6. Chapter 6

Two hours of ranting and raving, plotting and planning, talking and swearing and defending and accusing, and it was finally time.

One hour ago, Wu, Garmadon, and Koko had left to scout out the area and secure the perimeter. Koko had even donned her Lady Irondragon armor and pulled out a huge spear that certainly none of them had even suspected she kept in her closet. (Except apparently Garmadon, who took the transformation from office lady to warrior queen in stride.) The adults stressed the importance of not letting any clue to Lloyd's situation and whereabouts escape.

The Ninja were ordered to wait until 7:00, not one minute before. Ten minutes before Skylor's time. They couldn't risk scaring her off, and if she was being watched, they couldn't risk anyone noticing them waiting around on the roof.

Skylor must have martial arts training, Kai thought, somewhat sadly. A week ago that would have made him ecstatic, something more they had in common. But now... Not only was most of the group determined to believe the worst of her, but she had as good as admitted to particular talents with the location of their meeting. Talents that would fit right in line with spying and drugging and kidnapping.

Had she ever even liked him? Or had this been about Lloyd the entire time?

Kai shook himself, literally whipping his head from side to side like a dog. This was no time for being selfish. No time for moping about a girl he'd never even been on a date with - as Nya had ruthlessly pointed out when he tried to defend her.

Only Kai had defended her, wanting so badly to believe she'd just stumbled on something and wanted to help. At least Zane and Master Wu were willing to hear her out. Koko, Garmadon, and Nya were out for blood and had to be physically held back and talked out of just smashing Chen's Noodle House and capturing Skylor immediately. Jay and Cole were suspicious and believed this was a setup of some sort, but also wanted to hear her story before deciding anything.

Kai stood in the middle of the rectangular roof, since he'd been the one given the note. Each of the remaining four Ninja took a corner. When Skylor arrived they would circle her. Where it went from there, nobody was sure.

Master Wu, Lord Garmadon, and Lloyd's mom were all positioned somewhere in the shadows on surrounding buildings, having given the all clear to the Ninja twenty minutes ago via the secure communicators each of them was wearing and had been since Lloyd's kidnapping.

And she arrived. Climbing over to the top of a nearby building, taking a running start, and gracefully clearing the distance between the two rooftops. He swallowed, his throat suddenly dry.

"Hi Kai," she said softly as she approached, smiling that smile that made his stomach drop and his heart squeeze.

Before Kai could react, which was just as well as he was somewhat at a loss, the other four Ninja as well as Lloyd's parents and Master Wu had Skylor surrounded.

She held up shaking hands in surrender and didn't resist as Koko roughly searched her for weapons and listening devices, didn't shout in anger as Lloyd's mom found and destroyed her phone, stabbing it through with her spear. Jay finished the job, zapping the remaining pieces to be sure the electronics were truly dead.

Finally Koko nodded to Wu, who took the lead. "You said you were being watched and that you want to help," he stated.

Skylor nodded shakily, eyes glancing in terror towards a growling Lord Garmadon.

"She looks like Anita," hissed the warlord. "You know what that means, brother."

The girl Kai had been crushing on for months, who always came across as confident and strong, at least when she knew people were watching, paled before their eyes at the name.

Wu nodded and gestured for his brother to calm down.

"You are Anita and Chen's daughter," he again stated instead of asked. "And the new Master of the element of Amber."

She nodded, looking scared and ashamed.

The seconds ticked by and Skylor realized what Wu was waiting for. Ever so slowly, trying her best to be completely nonaggressive, she snapped the fingers of her right hand, her left still bandaged, creating a small flame that she let flicker out after a moment. She raised the hand back up.

Wu nodded coldly. Garmadon and Koko looked furious. The Ninja mostly looked completely bewildered at how she could use Fire.

"You kidnapped my nephew."

Kai stared, as did everyone else. She gulped, but didn't deny it.

"Drugged him, followed him home, and stole him out of his own bed."

She stared at her feet, trembling hands still raised in surrender. After a couple seconds she nodded.

Garmadon lunged forward, possibly for the kill. Zane and Cole each grabbed an arm to hold him back. At least until they were finished here.

"On Chen's orders. Because he knows about Green," concluded Wu, sounding suddenly exhausted. "You had no choice - or didn't think you did. Until you talked to Lloyd. He won you over."

Skylor looked up in surprise and sudden hope, meeting those wise, kind eyes. "Yes," she finally said aloud. "Yes, exactly."

"Green?" interrupted Jay. "Why would anyone-"

"Chen! I knew it!" whispered Garmadon darkly, lava bright eyes flaming, clenching the hilt of the massive sword strapped to his back that he'd taken to carrying around since Lloyd was captured. "I told you we should have killed him, Wu! They must be on that blasted island!"

"I am confused. Who is Chen?" asked Zane.

Koko turned her angry eyes on her brother-in-law, who now had his own look of guilt on his face. The old master squeezed his staff as he glared at his own hands.

"Chen is a tyrant that Garmadon and I once banished from Ninjago. And I have not been completely honest with all of you about what the First Spinjitzu Master instructed me about Green before his passing."

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

A beeping started up on one of Clouse's monitors. He glanced over and frowned. The tracker on Skylor's phone had been broken. Silly girl probably dropped it.

He ignored it and continued to work. Skylor would report in any minute from another of her team's phones to explain what had happened. She knew their policy.

Fifteen minutes. Half an hour. One hour.

Clouse frowned when he took a break from his computer, stretching and noticing the still blinking alert. How odd. He texted her team at the restaurant.

The reply was YNX. Yes, left work on time. No, has not checked into the next checkpoint on her way home. X, has not reported anything to pass on. Well, teenagers were entitled to wander a bit. She did that from time to time, her status as heir granting her a bit more leeway than the average minion.

Although, out of curiosity, he pulled up the GPS data on her phone's tracker.

It's last location wasn't too far from the restaurant. Actually... He blinked. No, wasn't that?

He quickly opened up another file. And started cursing.

Lloyd and Koko Garmadon's apartment building.

Skylor might be compromised.

Clouse quickly pulled up all the security information for the island. There was no sign of any problems. He sent out a request to report in.

Station three was unresponsive.

One agent not reporting in he could ignore. One station losing contact was serious, but could have a reasonable explanation. But add the two together, and you get a sum of Ninja.

Skylor had betrayed them. He was sure of it.

He swore some more, grabbed some hand tools and equipment from the shelves, and raced to the laboratory they had the Green Ninja imprisoned in. He knew he should've prioritized those shields!

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

Lloyd was awake, and not feeling all that bad. A little hungry, a little thirsty, a little exhausted from coil number six earlier, but he was conscious and not in agony, so no real complaints.

He was actually sitting against the wall of his jar, playing with his new power. It was fun shifting its form and state, though he found just holding it as a warm, glowing globe or watching the flickering sparks swirling around his hands to be calming. Something he could control, even as a prisoner.

Suddenly Clouse ran around the corner into his line of sight, charging for the control station he'd been at the first time Lloyd had woken. His arms were full of tools and equipment the names and purposes of which Lloyd wouldn't be able to even guess at. The vampire scientist guy threw all his stuff on the ground and pounded a large button on the controller.

Lloyd braced himself, but no pain followed. Instead, there was a hissing sound and a strangely sweet smell filled the jar.

Great. He was going to be drugged and moved.

Lloyd leaned against the glass, expecting to fall unconscious any moment. Instead of any mental fog, though, all strength seemed to sap out of body. He slumped over, still wide awake but unable to so much as twitch a finger. The green power he'd been playing with faded and dispersed.

Why was he still awake? This was weird. And it had to be deliberate, considering he'd been unconscious every time they'd done something in the past.

Even as Lloyd's thoughts raced, a clamp of some sort lowered from the jar's lid. It lowered and grabbed him around his waist, lifting his limp torso. The lid and clamp both raised, lifting him right out of the jar and onto the ground next to it.

He couldn't see what Clouse was up to, but he needn't wonder long. Within seconds a frantic looking Clouse was at his side, attaching chains around the ninja's wrists and ankles. Within a minute, the chains were retracting, dragging him back against the cursed glass wall from his last time out of the jar.

It was painful and humiliating, hanging there from the chains like a doll, and frankly he preferred the jar. Though that didn't explain why he was being kept awake this time.

Clouse was fiddling around outside his line of sight, and soon came around. Carrying a stupidly large needle.

Lloyd panicked, not that there was anything he could do. He clamped his eyes shut, wishing he could also block out the pain as the sharp needle pierced his neck and a stinging liquid rushed into his veins.

Lloyd gasped as feeling and control immediately returned to his muscles. More concerning though, his mind was suddenly racing, actually painful in its sudden over-awareness. The light was too bright, any sounds too loud. He could feel himself twitching and flinching and he had no idea why.

"Can't have you crashing," mumbled Clouse, more to himself than Lloyd. "And there's no time to finish the next coil. We'll have to do this the old fashioned way."

Why now? Why the sudden rush? What could be -

They were coming. His family was coming.

Lloyd couldn't stop his smirk, even knowing things were probably about to get much worse for him. Just a little longer.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

_Author's Notes: Credit to my wonderful beta Sunny Lighter for all her help and encouragement! Also, it was totally her idea for Koko to be Lady Irondragon again for the rescue! _

_Special thanks to last chapter's reviewers: lloydskywalkers, Fabro de Omres, EMPFangirl02, Carrie2sky, Watcher321, Sunny Lighter (of course!), and Bookkeeper2004! As well as my three guest reviewers! You all definitely made my day, my week, my month! And it's even more amazing that pretty much ALL of you are Ninjago authors too - that just makes any praise from you guys THAT much more special!  
_

_And that's it for the filler, everyone! From here, everything's action, climax, and (hopefully!) a very satisfying ending! _


	7. Chapter 7

Skylor would have preferred something sneakier, involving several different covert teams. But not one of the Ninja would agree to be placed in a team other than the one going after Lloyd, and so she led the rather large group of eight, nine with herself, through the hall towards the main lab.

They'd infiltrated from the back of the island and easily taken control of the outpost on that side. Hadn't even had to kill anyone. From there, it was easy to sneak into Chen's complex.

She wished they'd split up. They could do with a distraction, as well as a team to head for Clouse's workshop and another after her father. But ninjas were far more stubborn than she.

And, to be honest, she didn't really think any of them trusted her but Kai. That was probably the real reason.

They were almost there when a scream of agony split the air.

"Lloyd!" she shouted, abandoning all attempts at subterfuge as she took off. The rest were hot on her heels. The massive lab doors weren't even an obstacle to the the gang of Ninja, easily crashing beneath the combined force of at least six different attacks.

A glowing green shield blocked any way further into the huge room, easily enclosing a good three-quarters of it. Swirling and sparking in that amazing way only Lloyd's power seemed to.

Clouse was within the massive shield, sweating heavily and smirking triumphantly. Lloyd was chained to the glass wall behind him, mouth gasping and eyes blazing bright even through the slightly distorted lens of the green shield. The screaming had cut off, but probably more from an inability to breathe than any lessening of pain.

Kai, raging beside her, raised a flaming fist and pounded against the shield. Lloyd visibly was thrown back with every strike.

"STOP!" screamed Skylor, grabbing Kai's arm. "You're hurting him!"

"How could I be-" began Kai.

"This is Green!" she cried out, gesturing to the beautiful shield. "The shield is Lloyd's! Clouse is controlling it! Every time you strike it, you hurt Lloyd!"

"This is... Lloyd's?" mumbled Koko, aghast and bewildered. Yeah, Master Wu had explained that Green was actually the element of Energy, the force that connected all things, that it combined traits of all the major elements and was stronger than any of them alone, but they still hadn't pictured anything like this!

"How would you know that?" demanded Cole, obviously ready to attack the shield himself. The rest of the Ninja were also positioned to strike.

"Because a few years ago that was me!" she shouted back.

Most of the group were thrown back at this revelation and now eyed her with open pity and horror. Naturally, Garmadon only cared about how this affected Lloyd.

"So how DO we get to that flea-bitten son of a yak to destroy him and rescue my son?!"

"You don't," replied Clouse triumphantly. "My tests show the Green Ninja can keep this amount of output up indefinitely. Go ahead and attack it - I'm sure the Green Power can take whatever you can dish out. While you scramble about trying to get in, I'll have plenty of time finishing up a weapon to destroy the lot of you!"

"Hit... It..." gasped Lloyd.

Clouse turned to stare in surprise at his prisoner, who should be struggling to breathe, let alone speak.

"No! What that will do to you-!" argued Skylor.

"Hit! ... It!" repeated Lloyd, slightly louder, regaining his footing and trying to stand up instead of just hang there. Considering he was obviously in extreme pain, even that small movement seemed an enormous strain.

Garmadon and Wu needed no more prompting, launching simultaneous attacks at the shield, only to be thrown back.

Lloyd cried out, but quickly regained strict control of himself. He closed his blazing eyes, face lined with strain, fists clenched tight. Before their eyes, the green shield seemed to smooth over, thin out, harden. It suddenly looked... fragile. Maybe he couldn't take it down, but he was definitely trying his best to help them.

Clouse cursed and rushed to his controls, abandoning his project on the floor.

Lloyd's blazing eyes opened again, finding his family and crying out, "Spin...jitzu! GO!"

He obviously wouldn't be able to hold whatever he was doing for long, and after a shared look of determination, his family launched into spinjitzu tornadoes and bashed against the shield. It shattered and dissipated before their combined might.

Lloyd went limp.

Skylor and Garmadon charged for Clouse, her to grab the keys to the chains and him probably to slaughter the man. Wu allowed his brother a few punches and kicks, only stopping his brother when he went for the throat.

Koko ran to her son's side, along with Kai, Nya, Jay, Cole, and Zane.

"Please say we didn't kill him! Say we didn't kill him!" jabbered Jay. "We killed him! We killed him! Someone tell me I'm wrong already!"

"Not... dead..." whispered Lloyd, still limp in his mother's arms.

"Oh, thank goodness," breathed Zane, looking almost faint in relief. He set a hand on his brother's head.

Kai was crying, clinging to Lloyd's hand along with Nya. Jay was just behind them, wringing his hands in anxiety before he rushed forward to grab Lloyd's other hand. Cole was helping Koko support Lloyd to take his weight off the straining chains.

"Stupid drug... Can't even sleep," grumbled Lloyd, opening his eyes. They were strained with pain and probably the effects of the drug he mentioned, but at least no longer glowing with power like earlier. For a second they thought his eyes had turned black, but it was the pupils of his eyes completely blown as wide as they could go. He groaned and narrowed them, obviously struggling to see.

Skylor had arrived by now and quickly unlocked the cuffs on his ankles, then wrists. He fell forward, his mom struggling to support his weight, and Cole kindly but firmly took his brother from her. With his earth-enhanced strength, Lloyd's weight was nothing.

"I hate that one," said Skylor softly. "It should last about twelve hours, then you'll really crash."

Lloyd grumbled but snuggled to get more comfortable in Cole's arms, his mom a safe hovering presence, his brothers' and sister's concerned voices around him, the sounds of his uncle and father beating up and interrogating his torturer nearby.

"Told you, Sky," he whispered weakly. "You can date Kai now. My blessings," he giggled, sounding ever so young and way too old at the same time.

Skylor didn't know whether to groan or blush or thank Lloyd in return.

Kai shyly took her hand.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

"I won't ask again," growled Garmadon. "Tell us where Chen is or I remove your head!"

Clouse's eyes bulged with terror when the former evil warlord swung an absolutely enormous sword down from his back and swung it up.

"I give! I give! He's in his project room!"

"What project?" demanded Wu.

"I don't know!"

The sword pressed to his throat and a staff punched into his gut. He gasped and it took a minute to recover.

"I really don't! He took six coils of Green Energy, locked himself up in there, and demanded not to be disturbed! I have no idea what he's doing! If it were my choice, I would have used those coils for a shield around the island, not some secret who knows what!"

Garmadon smashed the hilt of the sword against the side of Clouse's head, knocking the worm out (and then some), which for him was really holding back. His son would be proud! He turned to his brother.

"We have to find Chen," said Wu. "He's up to something. Six, why would he need-"

His eyes fell on the six Ninja, Koko, and Skylor. Six Ninja. Five main elements and one essence...

"Garmadon - the First Spinjitzu Master's seal!" he gasped.

"No one's that stupid!" retorted Garmadon. "Not even I would-" He paused, remembering who they were dealing with. "Ugh, that's right. Chen's an idiot with a god complex."

Wu turned back to his students, sister-in-law, and Chen's daughter.

"Chen is attempting to release the Great Devourer! We must hurry!"

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

Chen's armies were still mostly oblivious to everything going on, and the group was smart enough to keep it that way even without any further instruction. Skylor took the lead, being the only one to know where Chen's project room was, and Cole fell into the last position, still cradling a weak Lloyd, who would hopefully stay down and focus on recovering.

Lloyd was the type to always insist he was fine and try to get up and fight no matter what state he was in. Right now, though, Cole doubted he could even stand or see straight. He kept flinching at even the softest noises, and his head kept turning, eyes flickering from side to side, even as his body otherwise lay disturbingly limp in Cole's arms. That drug was some nasty stuff.

Wu had explained hurriedly that the Great Devourer was a legendary snake that grew larger every time it ate. It's venom was a terrible poison that, instead of killing its victims, turned them evil.

The First Spinjitzu Master, Wu and Garmadon's father, had sealed the beast on this island after it had bitten a young Garmadon. The seal should've been invincible, being locked by the very elements that had been used to create Ninjago. Earth, Water, Lightning, Ice, and Fire, plus Green Energy - the essence that tied the five major elements together and flowed through everyone and everything.

It was hypothetically possible for Energy alone, having traits of all five major elements, to unlock the seal.

"That's... what he was doing with Amber," mumbled Lloyd weakly.

Wu nodded. "That's surely why he took in Anita, and later why he experimented on Skylor. He was trying to manipulate and control Amber to break the seal. It is related to Energy after all, just as Metal is related to Earth, but they are considered sub-elements for a reason."

"He would get so angry when I couldn't do what he asked," confessed Skylor, in obvious distress at what she was hearing. "And I was never able to combine the elements we collected, not like he wanted me to. He always complained it too weak."

"Too weak to break a certain seal," growled Garmadon.

They came to another large metal door and smashed through, much as they had into the laboratory where Lloyd had been held captive.

Chen was waiting for them.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

_Author's Notes: Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I promise the last chapter will be out this coming Monday! Hope you all enjoyed the rescue scene and are eager for the showdown with Chen! What do you all think of the reveal of Chen's insane plot? Do any of you have ideas about what's going to go down next chapter? I'm curious to see if any of you have figured out my ending! Or even what's to come in the sequel! If you REALLY think you've gotten it, please tag your review with POSSIBLE SPOILER at the top, or maybe just PM me so we can chat about it! _

_As always, double thanks to my beta Sunny Lighter, as well as my regular reviewers Bookkeeper2004, EMPFangirl02, Carrie2sky, Watcher321, and Fabro de Omres! Also to all my guest reviewers and those who make a point of following every chapter, even if they don't have time to drop a review just right now!  
_


	8. Chapter 8

Chen was waiting for them, seated on a throne of some sort. He smiled as the group lunged at him and pressed a button.

Jay screamed as he was snatched by apparently nothing, being yanked away from everyone else before they could react. He slammed into a glass wall like the one they'd just released Lloyd from. It seemed to be connected to one of the six massive coils arranged in the room. When he tried to move, he seemed to be completely stuck.

"I can't move! It's like a magnet or something!" he called to the others, close to panicking.

The others started to charge forward, but a shimmering shield of Green appeared around them, sealing them in place.

"Lightning?" mumbled Lloyd, trying and somewhat succeeding in keeping his wavering gaze on the coil connected to the glass trapping Jay. No one really paid any attention to him in the chaos.

"How nice of you!" cheered Chen, not in the least fazed by the group facing his throne. "I was just planning to invite you all. You saved me so much trouble! Even brought my little pet over for me, so I wouldn't have to fetch him on my own."

Cole nervously shifted his grip on Lloyd and stepped back, away from the madman. The others stepped forward, blocking their son, nephew, friend, and brother from view.

"It will never work, Chen!" shouted Wu. "You won't be able to break the seal with just Energy!"

Chen looked puzzled, then outright laughed. "Heeheehee! Oh, Wu, I always loved how you're so sure you know everything, when you know NOTHING! I didn't collect Green to release the seal. I collected Energy to create traps for your precious Ninja."

He slapped several more buttons. The shield dropped, and this time Kai, Zane, and Nya all screamed as they were yanked right off their feet and across the room, just as Jay had been. They all smacked against strange glass panes attached to different coils, seemingly glued in place by forces they didn't understand and couldn't fight.

The room echoed with the sounds of their struggles as they fought the forces pinning them down, as they tried futilely to summon their elemental powers or use their spinjitzu to break free.

Skylor tried to force herself to calm down, but panic was quickly drowning her. Wu has been wrong. This was a trap. They'd walked right into it. Her father had been ready and waiting, had known their every move and thought, as he always did.

Her father always won. He was always ten steps ahead and laughing at everyone else so far behind. Why had she ever thought she could fight him?

She slunk to her knees in surrender. In failure. They'd lost.

"Well done, daughter," began her father. And everyone turned to stare at her. What?

"Just as I asked of you. Good girl. Now, be a dear and finish it."

What was he talking about? She'd betrayed him. And, meeting his eyes, she recognized that glint. He was angry beneath his facade. She would pay.

He hadn't been ready, she realized in a rush. He was trying to turn the others against her, force her back to his side. Which means there was a critical flaw in his plan.

"Daughter. Like we talked about before. Bring me Lloyd Garmadon, before that oaf crushes my new pet."

Cole's arms protectively tightened around Lloyd's weak form. He glared at Skylor before turning his glinting eyes back to Chen on his throne.

Lloyd seemed to be a little dazed, staring blankly in the direction of the coils and mumbling to himself.

"Hand him over, Earth Ninja. I assume Clouse used the old equipment on him? If you broke through Green while he was connected to it, he won't recover for weeks. If I push your button while you're holding him, he'll be crushed, without any powers to save him. I would hate that to happen."

"Don't move, Cole," ordered Wu, narrowing his eyes at Chen suspiciously. "Ninja do not surrender."

Everyone stood in silence for a long minute. Finally, Lloyd reached up shakily to get Cole's attention.

"Give me to Skylor, Cole," he said softly. He stared into Cole's eyes, begging his friend to trust his judgment. "We're not surrendering," he added. He woozily glanced over in Chen's direction. "I'm calling his bluff. Green failed to break the seal on its own... only then did he come up with this plot to trap everyone. I bet your button isn't ready yet - not enough time. Skylor can take me and you can fight."

"Believe what you want," scoffed Chen. "My daughter will obey me."

"I trust her," countered Lloyd softly, but firmly. With the full strength of his belief behind his words.

Skylor shakily got to her feet and took a couple steps towards Cole, who glared at her, but reluctantly lowered his defenseless friend into her arms.

Chen smacked a button, but instead of sweeping Cole off his feet, the Green shield sprung back up. This time with Lloyd and Skylor outside of it.

"So I don't have the Earth button ready," admitted Chen. "So what! I can just use Amber for that! Or did you think it was normal for my daughter to be able to carry another teenager so easily!"

"On me," Lloyd whispered in her ear as she supported him, stepping further back from a fiercely glaring Cole. "Energy, use it on me... I've got none."

Skylor turned bewildered and terrified eyes to him. "You won't hurt me," he said, so simply, so matter of fact. "Play along with your father. But, instead of Earth, use Ice."

She wanted to argue, but her father would notice if she said anything. Her mouth wasn't hidden like Lloyd's, with his face against her shoulder.

"You can do this," said Lloyd, shakily setting a hand over her uninjured one where it wrapped around his shoulders. Shielding it from her father's sight.

Well, if the Ninja are anything to go by, part of being a hero was trust. Just jumping in. She concentrated, dividing her focus between Earth, to continue supporting Lloyd's weight, and Energy, just a little bit to her covered hand. Just enough to travel from her hand to Lloyd's to do... whatever he wanted with it. She didn't really understand Green very well, even for all their playing with it.

Wait. All their playing with it.

Almost immediately, Lloyd's body stopped trembling. He turned his eyes, glowing green again with his pupils rapidly shrinking back to normal, to her and had the nerve to wink. "Keep playing," he whispered. "Remember, Ice."

She fought back a grin. Got it.

"Daughter. To me," ordered Chen casually. Apparently believing he was in full control of the situation.

"Yes, father," she agreed obediently. She stepped forward towards the throne, slipping into her professional spy guise. She didn't care about these people. She only followed orders. She must've been doing a good job, because she heard Garmadon actually growl behind her back.

Chen gestured to a large dog bed beside his throne, and that was just needlessly insulting. But she carefully kept her face blank as she laid Lloyd down in the center of it. There was even a collar and leash.

Her back was turned to her father, so she dared to meet Lloyd's eyes. He nodded firmly. He was looking slightly better every second, but was still laying, playing?, limp and exhausted. She took a deep breath and quickly buckled on the collar and attached the leash, as her father undoubtedly willed. At least it was a normal dog collar - just for humiliation, no actual purpose besides that. If she hesitated, if she refused, her father would suspect and who knew what he would do.

If he caught on, if he called his armies, they wouldn't get another chance. She had to stick to Lloyd's plan. It was a good plan. She just had to put on the best act of her life.

I do not care, she told herself. I do not care about any of them. I obey my father without question or hesitation.

The other Ninja and Garmadon were shouting out insults and calling her a traitor, not having a clue what she and Lloyd were up to. She reassured herself that they would catch on pretty quickly. At least Kai's voice was noticeably absent, as well as Wu's. Koko was mostly silent except for one single curse.

She couldn't let that affect her. She was a professional. She'd betrayed people a hundred times over. Skylor kept her mask firmly in place as she rose to her feet and turned to her father, waiting respectfully for further orders.

Chen was grinning in glee. She had to fight to keep calm. It would be too easy to slip up now, and who knew what other buttons her father had on that throne of his.

He rose from his throne and stepped forward, hands on his hips as he surveyed the room. The five coils equally spaced around the edge of the room, each attached to a glass panel. All but one with a Ninja stuck to it. Trapped like flies in a spiderweb.

Each of those five coils was slightly different, though it was possible no one but Lloyd, Skylor, and Chen had noticed. After all, they were all green and all glowed. But the Green Energy crackling around the coil attached to Jay's glass panel was in the form of lighting, around Kai's coil was fire, and so on. The one standing in the center was just Green, though it felt more powerful than any of the other five.

Chen was using the same odd principle of Green that Skylor and Lloyd had discovered. That Green, in the form of an element, drew that element to it. The question was, did he know what else the two teenagers had discovered? Even if he did, had he prepared for it?

Earth plus Ice would be nothing on its own. But Earth Energy, or rather, Green in its Earth form, had a rather... 'unexpected' reaction the previous day when Skylor had used Ice.

Chen was eyeing her suspiciously, but for the first time in her life, seemed to be satisfied with what he saw. He ever so subtly relaxed and gestured flamboyantly towards the remaining coil, eagerly turning his attention to the large, circular pattern engraved in the floor of the room.

She'd managed to trick her father. Until this moment, she hadn't thought it possible. Keeping her face blank and emotionless, she approached the remaining glass panel, ignoring the pleading of the five Ninjas and Koko to please just stop, raised her hands, set them flat against the panel, and used Ice.

A loud CRACK sound echoed through the room, followed by a crack, crack, crack - Skylor ran for cover, throwing herself behind the throne with Lloyd - BOOM!

The Earth Coil exploded in an immense shower of scraps. Somehow, at the same instant, the Green around each coil had expanded to protect the Ninja still attached to it, and Garmadon, Wu, Koko, and Cole were still protected behind the shield.

Chen alone was blasted across the room, littered in small injuries from the flying scraps and concussive force. He groaned over the ringing in his ears and sat up, to see a cocky Lloyd Garmadon making himself comfortable on his throne. And his daughter smiling at the boy's side. The two brats high-fived. As Chen watched, Lloyd unbuckled the collar around his neck and tossed it to the side.

"Cole, get Jay," directed Lloyd casually, being sure to smirk at Chen all the while, to all appearances entirely healed. He gestured with a hand and the shield around his parents, uncle, and strongest brother disappeared.

"Skylor, if you could get Kai? Then Kai can release Zane, while Jay frees Nya. Don't worry, guys, none of the other combinations explode."

Chen's eyes were glued in horror to the Green Ninja, the old man unable to move as the reality hit him that... he'd lost.

Garmadon approached Chen, grinning in delight, massive sword swinging down from his back. Koko Irondragon didn't look much more forgiving, smiling as she also approached, twirling her spear casually. Wu spun his staff as he joined them.

Chen fainted.

"Hey! No fair!" complained Garmadon sulkily.

Skylor started laughing. Soon all of the Ninja were gathered around her and Lloyd, giving hugs or reassurance to the two of them.

The adults were busy tying Chen up. With a look of savage glee, Garmadon retrieved the dog collar and secured it maybe a couple notches too tight around Chen's own neck. Koko smirked, but released the collar by a notch so the old menace wouldn't suffocate, then used the leash to secure his arms to his sides and his wrists behind him.

"Well done, Masters of Green and Amber!" Wu praised Skylor and Lloyd, visibly impressed. "You have discovered elemental opposites entirely on your own - I don't believe anyone else can lay claim to such a feat!"

Skylor was leaning against the throne, smiling like she'd never be able to stop. Lloyd pulled his legs up and groaned, resting his head against his knees. She set her hand against his forehead, not particularly worried. She had a hunch what this was about.

"While I'd love to brag, uncle, I think my acting is at its limits. Green managed to get that drug through my system and give me enough of a boost to shield all the guys, but that collapse Skylor warned about earlier is coming on pretty quick. Can I take a nap now?"

"Go ahead," comforted Skylor gently, interrupting what would probably be a negative from any of the others there. After all, it's not like he could... yep, and there he went, slipping right off into a deep, restful sleep. She felt worried eyes on them, and quickly explained. "He's crashed, but he'll be fine when he wakes up. Meanwhile, what do we do? We've still got an island full of my father's followers, plus that one remaining coil," she gestured at the last glowing coil in the middle of the room. The one that held just Green. The other five were very dead.

"I know what 'I' want to do!" cheered Garmadon happily - and he up and ran off, waving his sword and screaming a jubilant battle cry. They all heard hysterical screams within seconds.

Wu laughed at the hopeful looks all turned his way by the remaining Ninja, Chen's daughter, and Koko. "Oh, go have fun. Though at least offer them the chance of surrender before pummeling them unconscious. I'll get Lloyd and Chen to the Bounty and contact the police chief. We'll decide what to do with that terrible device when Lloyd awakens, in his own time. He deserves a break."

Obviously using Earth, Wu lifted Lloyd gently with one arm, supporting him so his nephew's head was comfortably pillowed against his shoulder. Then he not so gently lifted Chen and tossed him over his other shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Humming to himself, Wu set off back for the Destiny's Bounty, listening to the music of his family's vengeance as he made his way through the halls.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

The police would later inform the Ninja that they didn't know about any glowing green coil - the room they'd described had a coil in the center alright, but it was as dead and lifeless as the rest of the broken coils in the room.

No one was too worried. After all, even though Clouse had escaped, Chen and most of his army were in prison. Lloyd had made a full recovery and was eagerly teaching the other Ninja what he and Skylor had discovered about elements and Green. Skylor took over the family restaurant, though she'd had to hire an entire new staff, since the last had all been arrested.

Everything went back to normal. Well, a new normal. With a Master of Amber on standby if the Ninja Force should ever need her, and a Green Ninja more powerful than ever.

Still, every now and then, Lloyd would wonder, just where did all that Green Energy go?

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

"Delicious..." hissed a black shadow, creeping up through a crack in the floor. It lurched towards the massive coil above it, eagerly absorbing the Green Energy. The shadow seemed to darken and enlarge as it gorged itself. When it finished, a single red eye slit opened and surveyed the room.

"Where... can I find more...?" pondered the Overlord aloud. It would need much more than that little snack to overshadow Ninjago. To destroy the descendants and chosen ones of the First Spinjitzu Master.

~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~

_Author's notes: And there we go! That's it for Battery, everyone! Hope you all enjoyed, and please review!_

_Final thanks to, of course, my wonderful beta Sunny Lighter! Also thanks to my reviewers: EMPFangirl02, Carrie2sky, Bookkeeper2004, __lloydskywalkers, Fabro de Omres, and Watcher321, and everyone else who has been there for me since chapter one! You've all been great and I'm truly hopeful that you loved reading this last chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!  
_


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